History of Western
Philosophy
in Five Minutes
Video
Philosophy 1010
Class #1
Title:
Introduction to Philosophy
Instructor:
Paul Dickey
E-mail Address: pdickey2@mccneb.edu
http://mockingbird.creighton.edu/NCW/dickey.htm
Course:
Introduction to Philosophy
Phil 1010
Class Websites:
www.quia.com !!!
http://www.coursesmart.com/9780495808756 (Text)
Reading Assignment for Class #2:
Velasquez, Philosophy: A Text With Readings (11e)
Chapter 1, Sections 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, and 1.4
Text: Website:
http://www.coursesmart.com/9780495808756
1)
Introductions
2)
Syllabus
3)
Assessment Quiz
4)
Break
5)
Discussion / Videos
6)
Writing Assignment
Philosophy Begins
with Wonder!
Wonder is an emotion comparable
to surprise and awe that people feel
when perceiving something rare or
unexpected.
It is specifically linked to curiosity
and is the emotion leading to
philosophy and science.
Video
What is a Philosophical Question?
What is true love? – Is beauty a matter of fact or a matter of taste?
– Is there a God? – What do I want to do with my life? – What is
the purpose of art? – Is there a difference between health and
beauty? – Do I want to be beautiful? – Is everything I think I know
true? -- Is lying always wrong? -- Does every question have an
answer? – Do I have to accept reality or can I determine my own
reality? -- Why can’t people just get along together? – Who should
take care of the environment? -- What would happen if there were
no government? – Why do bad things happen to people? -- What
is the meaning of my life? – Will getting married make me more or
less free? Is love more important than freedom? …. What is true
love? …..
Why are these questions philosophical questions?
What the characteristics of these questions so that we say they are
philosophical?
Is there a difference between philosophical questions and scientific
questions?
Is there a difference between philosophical questions and
speculation?
Questions, So Many Questions …
What Kind of Questions are These Anyway?
•
May be deeply personal
•
Answers cannot be “proven” but some opinions make
more sense than others and generally arguments can
be given for our views (thus, they are not entirely
subjective)
•
Necessary to ask for our world to “make sense”
•
Often confuse us
•
We have to answer for ourselves.
•
We cannot expect everyone to agree with us and they
may also have good arguments for their views
•
Throughout our life we may have to reconsider our
answers
Some Shots at Defining Philosophy . . .
•
Do these definitions give YOU a satisfactory
understanding of what the lady on the beach is
doing?
•
Philosophy is an activity people undertake when they
seek to understand fundamental truths about
themselves, the world in which they live, and their
relationships to the world and to each other.
…www.fsu.edu (Florida State University)
•
Philosophy studies the fundamental nature of existence,
of man, and of man's relationship to existence. … In the
realm of cognition, the special sciences are the trees, but
philosophy is the soil which makes the forest possible.
…Ayn Rand, Philosophy, Who Needs It (p. 2)
What is Philosophy?
Well, maybe….
•
Philosophy is the “audacity of hope” for obtaining
knowledge and wisdom about the world and about
ourselves. – Yes, we can! (Thanks, Barack.)
•
Philosophy is the application of critical reasoning to
our wonder about the world and ourselves.
•
Philosophy is the willingness to ask questions about
what we have assumed we already know.
•
Philosophy is each individual person’s opportunity
and responsibility to live their own life, to be who
they are, to become autonomous.
What is Philosophy?
“We can help one another to find out the meaning of
life. But in the last analysis , the individual person is
responsible for living his own life and for ‘finding
himself.’ Others can give you a name or a number,
but they can never tell you who you really are. That
is something you yourself can only discover from
within.”
….Thomas Merton
“The unexamined life is not worth living.”
“The only thing I know is that I know nothing.”
….Socrates
Is Philosophy Important to Living a Good Life?
Some claims for Studying Philosophy –
Do you agree? Why or why not?
• Philosophy enlarges our understanding of the world
and expands freedom of thought. Philosophy can
release us from the "prejudices derived from common
sense", from the "habitual belief of an age or nation",
and from convictions that have grown up "without the
cooperation or consent of (our) deliberate reason".
(Russell)
• Philosophy may help develop the capacity to look at
the world from the perspective of other individuals
and cultures. It develops tolerance and critical sense.
• By discussing political and social issues,
philosophy raises public awareness and helps in
forming engaged and responsible citizens.
Is Philosophy Unavoidable?
Philosophy is not a bauble of the
intellect, but a power from which no
man can abstain. Anyone can say that
he dispenses with a view of reality,
knowledge, the good, but no one can
implement this credo. The reason is
that man, by his nature as a conceptual
being, cannot function at all without
some form of philosophy to serve as his
guide.
…Leonard Peikoff
Oh what the heck, philosophy is fun!!!
Video
What is Philosophy?
(15 minutes)
Graham Priest,
Professor of Philosophy
University of Queensland
Video
So How Should We DO Philosophy?
Not “just anything goes!” Philosophy is guided by
the commitment to careful reasoning which is
“playing by the rules.”
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five
players try to score points by throwing or "shooting"
a ball through the top of a basketball hoop ...
The Father of Western Philosophy
•
Socrates, 460-399 B. C.
•
Socrates' deserves credit for rigorous, ethical
investigation. His conversations with his fellow
Athenians are the first records we have of an
individual, by careful reasoning, trying to discover
the guiding principles of moral choices.
•
But be careful. There were many Greek thinkers
(actually known as “The Pre-Socratics”) prior to
Socrates who developed profound insights into the
nature of the universe and man’s place in it.
•
Socrates built a reputation on questioning
conventional beliefs, thus embodying the
nature of philosophy itself.
What is the Socratic method?
•
“Teaching by Asking Instead of by Telling”
•
Socrates engaged himself in questioning students in
an unending search for truth. He sought to get to the
foundations of his students' and colleagues' views by
asking continual questions until a contradiction was
exposed, thus proving the fallacy of the initial
assumption.
•
This became known as the Socratic Method, and may
be Socrates' most enduring contribution to philosophy.
•
Socrates was both a real philosopher and the major
character in Plato’s (his student’s) dialogues. Thus, it
is not clear to what degree Socrates was a precursor
to Plato’s ideas or was a mouthpiece for Plato to put
forward his own views.
Video
Plato
Plato is history's first great philosopher
because, among other reasons, he provided
the first set of answers to some of the largest
and most difficult questions: What is the
structure of reality? What can be known for
certain? What is moral virtue? What is the
nature of the ideal state?
No philosopher before Plato had ever
attempted such a wide and deep exploration
of philosophical problems.
Plato’s Dialogues &
the Socratic Method
•
Plato’s dialogues demonstrate the Socratic Method.
•
In The Euthyphro, Plato shows Socrates questioning
traditional religious beliefs and the nature of religious
duty. He asks: what makes a thing holy? Is an act holy
because it is loved by the gods or do the gods love
what is holy because it is holy? If the first, are the
gods capricious and random and be able to select
anything to be holy? If the latter, then we have not
answer the original question at all.
•
In Plato’s The Republic, Socrates questions
Thrasymachus who states that justice is whatever is to
the advantage of the strong, that “might makes right.”
Socrates asks what if the powerful pass laws that in
error do not benefit themselves. Would not justice then
be following laws that do not benefit the strong?
Writing Assignment
Worth 5 points in Participation Category.
Pose a philosophical question that is
important to you and attempt to answer it
in 250 words or less. Please do not use
any sources. Just use your own reflection.